The statement made by Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa in Parliament on 23 April 2019 regarding the Easter Sunday terrorist attacks (Translation)Posted on April 23rd, 2019

MEDIA RELEASE – Mahinda Rajapaksa

Hon Speaker,

We are gathered here today, to discuss the
future of our country following the bomb attacks that took place on Easter
Sunday. More than 300 people were killed and more than 500 people were injured
in those attacks. I wish to take this opportunity to once again convey my
heartfelt condolences to the families of all those who have lost their lives
and to wish those injured a speedy recovery.

After we ended
the 30 year war on 19 May 2009, we all thought we had seen the last of such
attacks. We were to mark the 10th anniversary of the ending of
terrorism next month. Even during that 30 year war, no single attack carried
out by the terrorists targeting civilians ever resulted in as much carnage as
the Easter Sunday attacks. The LTTE also carried out co-ordinated simultaneous
attacks on multiple targets but even they were not able to wreak the same
amount of destruction. The Easter Sunday attacks in Sri Lanka is said to be the
biggest single terrorist attack targeting civilians ever to take place in South
Asia. So many people did not lose their lives even in the Mumbai attacks of
2008.

This House has
to look into the circumstances that enabled terrorism to once again raise its
head in this country with such virulence. In November 2005, when I became
President for the first time, there was a nominal ceasefire in operation. But
the LTTE was carrying out attacks on a daily basis and killing two or three armed
forces personnel in each attack. During that period a bomb attack on a bus
resulted in a large number of civilian deaths.
When I went to St Anthony’s Church last Sunday following the attacks, I
was reminded of the Kebithogollewa incident. The people of that area expressed
a great deal resentment at our government over the Kebithogollewa incident.

The people
have no use for a government that cannot assure them of the safety of their
lives. In July 2006, we recommenced the war because the LTTE closed the
Mavilaru anicut and blocked the water supply to a large number of villages in
that area. It is the duty of the government to at the very minimum, to uphold the right of the
people to live and to create an environment where they will be able to go about
their day to day lives. That is why we never looked back after recommencing the
war following the Mavilaru incident.

In January
2015, I handed over a completely secure and peaceful country to the new
President. We had strengthened the intelligence services so that there would be
absolutely no threat to the national security of the country. Our intelligence
services worked closely with other intelligence services of neighbouring
countries and other international intelligence services to ensure the security of the
country. Whenever we got wind of a threat to national security, we acted on it. The
Easter Sunday attacks would never have taken place under our government.

The present
government is squarely responsible for the terrorist attacks that took place
last Sunday. The police had issued early warnings of an impending attack. However what action did the government take
with regard to those warnings? They never informed the Church leaders about
those warnings and neither did they provide extra security to the possible
targets. All that the leaders of the present government did was to ensure that
they themselves were nowhere near a possible target. On important occasion such
as Easter, representatives of the government usually attend Mass, but this time
there were no such representatives in the Churches.

When I went to
the scenes of the attacks on Sunday, one government minister said that the
opposition is trying to make political capital of the situation. I must remind
them that I also visited Kebithigollewa in the same way in 2006. I am not
speaking here as someone spewing forth empty words but as the individual who
gave leadership to the government that defeated the terrorists that no one
thought could ever be defeated. From
the moment this government came into power in January 2015, they have been
persecuting the members of the armed forces and the intelligence services that ended
that war. How many of our armed forces
personnel have they jailed over the past four years? How many times have they
hauled former army commanders and commanders of the navy and airforce to the
CID to be questioned?

Our war time
defence secretary was relentlessly persecuted because he was my brother. They
were not able to imprison him due to the intervention of the courts.

I have told
this government on many occasions that this is not the armed forces of the
Rajapaksas but the armed forces and intelligence services of the Republic of
Sri Lanka. Regardless of which political party is in power, it is they who will
have to ensure the security of the nation. This government never understood the
point. Due to the political leadership that we gave them, our armed froces were
able to win the war that was deemed unwinnable.

The armed
forces personnel who carried out their duties on behalf of the nation were harassed and
hunted down by this government. The government should at least now realise that you cannot
run this country according to the dictates coming from foreign countries. We have
to solve our own problems. The government was preparing to repeal the
Prevention of Terrorism Act on the instructions of their foreign masters. If
that Act had been repealed, what kind of a position would we be in today? Because
the government was engaged in relenetlessly persecuting its own armed forces,
we became an easy target for terrorists. No other country in the world has
persecuted and weakened their own armed forces and intelligence services in
this manner. Terrorists observe these things and plan accordingly.

The Sunday
attacks did not take place due to the negligence of one or two officials. We can now see that the government is
preparing to sacrifice some official and wash their hands of the matter. This
incident occurred because of the conduct of this government from the time they
came into power in January 2015. If anyone is to resign over these incidents,
it should be the government. Despite the persecution that the intelligence
services had been subject to, they did obtain prior intelligence relating to
this attack and conveyed the information to certain quarters. But nothing
happened thereafter. That warning had
been sent to my security officers as well, but they did not keep me informed
about the threat.

If I had known
that there was an imminent threat of this nature, I would have immediately
informed His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and also curtailed my own movements.
Instructing officials on the manner in which they should conduct themselves in
relation to matters involving national security, is the task of the government.
That is what people
elect governments for. The signal sent by this government to officials at all
levels is that national security is not important.That is the reason for all
this mayhem. These incidents did not
occur without warning. The recent destruction of Buddha statues in Mawanella,
the attempt on the life of a close supporter of a Muslim Minister from that
area, the discovery of over 100 kilos of explosives from Puttlam, are all
connected. So this attack did not just come from the blues. Having received
information that an attack can take place, all that the government did was to
ensure that they themselves were safe.

This terrorist
attck is very different to similar attacks that took place during the 30 year
war. The terrorists of that time did not target foreigners because they had
people living in those countries and funding the terrorist campaign in Sri
Lanka. But this new terrorism targets locals as well as foreigners. That
strikes a death blow not only to the tourist industry but to foreign investment
as well. This terrorism has to be conclusively defeated. I request the government to halt the
persecution of the armed forces at least now. The Council of Religions headed
by the Ven. Ittepane Dammalankara Mahanayake Thera and His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith has
also called upon the government to desist from weakening the intelligence
services further.

The arrests of
armed forces and intelligence services personnel that took place after this
government came into power was very often not based on solid evidence. In order
to please the yahapalana government the CID obtains statements from certain
people using various stratagems and then uses these statements to arrest members of
the armed forces and intelligence services. Some of these so called witnesses
have made special statements to Magistrates explaining how the CID obtained
statements from them implicating various people. Stop this filthy practice at least
now.

As the
opposition, we will extend our fullest cooperation to the law enforcements
authorities and the armed forces to ensure national security. I request the
people not to take the law into their own hands and to extend their fullest
cooperation to the law enforcement authorities and the armed forces to solve
this problem. We must remember that terrorists have no religion. The public needs more
information about some matters and I would like to address the following
questions to the government.

When did the SIS and the Security Concil first get to know of the organisation that is said to be behind these attacks?

According to the information available to the government, since when has this organization taken to terrorism?

What action was taken in respect of these reports?

Who investigated the Wanathaviluawa incident where over 100 kilos of explosives were found?

Who were the suspects arrested in this regard? Was this brought to the notice of the Security Council? If so when and by whom? What action was taken in this regard?

How many persons were arrested in this regard? Who were they? How many of them sere produced in courts? How many were released?

Were any of these suspects released at the request of any person? If so who was the person who made such a request?

Was there an intelligence report of a threat to national security in the month of April? Was this brought to the notice of the Security Council? If so, when and by whom? Who attended the security council on that day?

Has the involvement of a foreign party in these attacks been established? If so what is the foreign party involved?

Thank you.

Leave a Reply

Disclaimer: The comments contained within this website are personal reflection only and do not necessarily reflect the views of the LankaWeb. LankaWeb.com offers the contents of this website without charge, but does not necessarily endorse the views and opinions expressed within. Neither the LankaWeb nor the individual authors of any material on this Web site accept responsibility for any loss or damage, however caused (including through negligence), which you may directly or indirectly suffer arising out of your use of or reliance on information contained on or accessed through this Web site.
All views and opinions presented in this article are solely those of the surfer and do not necessarily represent those of LankaWeb.com.

This entry was posted
on Tuesday, April 23rd, 2019.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can skip to the end and leave a response.